Tata facing another land dispute for Nano factory

Tata's plans to build a new factory to manufacture its $2,500 Nano have hit a roadblock for the second time. Apparently they do things differently in India than they do here in the US. Here, local and state governments just hand over several hundred million dollars and some land and factories happen. In Indian, the locals apparently want to get paid for the land that gets turned over to big companies for their factories. After protests by farmers earlier this fall, led Tata to abandon plans to build the Nano at a new factory in West Bengal, the company announced a new site in Gujarat. However, the local populace there is now raising a stink as well. Tata will now start low-volume production of the Nano at an existing factory in Pantnagar while it tries to find a permanent solution. This probably means that Tata will be losing a significant amount of money on every Nano sold. It will now likely be at least a year or more before Tata gets any large volume Nano production going.